Photo Shutterstock Around 80% of young people occasionally drink alcohol, according to figures from the RIVM, the Trimbos Institute, and the CBS statistics agency. The data comes from health surveys conducted between 2022 and 2024.
This represents a six percentage point decrease in the number of drinkers compared to the previous survey conducted in 2015/2017. At that time, 86 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 said they drank alcohol. University students still drink the most: ninety percent. In higher professional education, the figure is 86 percent.
Heavy drinkers
However, the proportion of ‘heavy drinkers’ among young people is hardly declining. Heavy drinkers are people who consume at least six glasses (men) or four glasses (women) of alcoholic beverages at least once a week. A quarter of students in higher education meet this definition.
Long-term and frequent alcohol consumption carries more risks than just a severe hangover: it can, for example, lead to damage to the brain or liver. For this reason, at the end of 2018, a number of parties, including the government, educational institutions, and even beer brewers, signed the National Prevention Agreement.
One glass per day
One of the objectives of this agreement is to halve the number of students who drink excessively. So far, this has not been achieved. On the other hand, more and more students are adhering to the guideline of drinking no more than one glass per day. Approximately a quarter of university students and a third of higher professional education students adhere to this guideline.
Translation using DeepL.
![[Seriously?] OcSober! is forecast to be dry](https://www.resource-online.nl/app/uploads/2025/09/WEB_DeNeus.png)
